Hopper car gate latching mechanism

ABSTRACT

A transverse rotatable locking bar member carried on a hopper gate and having notched semicircular end portions mating in a similarly contoured locking block fixedly positioned alongside the sliding gate. Rotation of a centrally disposed locking bar handle moves the semicircular notched end portion of the locking bar from the locked position within the semicircular cutout in the locking block to permit sliding and opening movement of the hopper door.

United States Patent 1191 Gutridge 14 1 Jan. 9, 1973 1 HOPPER CAR GATELATCHING 2,145,173 1/1939 l-lankins ..105/282 R MECHANISM 2,751,861,6/1956 Withall ..10s/2s2 P 2,810,356 10/1957 [75] Inventor: Jack E.Gutridge, Dyer, Ind. 3,337,570 6/1968 [73] Assignee: PullmanIncorporated, Chicago, 111. 3'397'654 8/1968 [22] Filed: Dec. 28, 1970 IPrimary Examiner-Gerald M. Forlenza Assistant Examiner1-1owar'd Beltran[21] Appl' 101527 Attorney-Hilmond O. Vogel and Richard J. Myers [52]US. Cl. ..l05/253, 105/282 P, 105/305, [57] ABSTRACT 105/308 R Atransverse rotatable locking bar member carried on gg z g a-hopper gateand having notched semicircular end 5 portions mating in a similarlycontoured locking block fixedly positioned alongside the sliding gate.Rotation of a centrally disposed locking bar handle moves the [56]References Cited semicircular notched end portion of the locking barUNITED STATES PATENTS from the locked position within the semicircularcu- 1 tout 1n the locking block to permit sliding and opening 3,224,38212/1965 Floehr ..105/282 P movement of the hopper door 1,499,155 6/1924Christianson..;. ..10S/308 R 1,469,352 10/1923 Anderson ..105/308 R 5Claims, 7 Drawing Figures 20 20 v '2 20 IO PATENTEI] JAN 9 I975 SHEEI 1OF 2 INVENTOR.

JACK E. GUTRIDGE PATENT AGENT PATENTEDJAN 91m 3,709,152

SHEET 2 [IF 2 INVENTOR.

JACK E. GUTRIDGE PATENT AGENT HOPPER CAR GATE LATCHING MECHANISMBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This inventionpertains to a locking device for use on the doors of railway hopper carsand in particular, to a locking device used on a sliding type of doorhaving a rack and pinion opening drive means.

2. Description of the Prior Art The prior art includes locking memberswhich are spaced across the width of the door and pivoted to beengageable with the door in its closed position. Problem encounteredwith this type of locking arrangement is that each lock must be engagedand disengaged from opposite sides of the hopper car, thus rendering thelocking and unlocking operation time consuming.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a lockingdevice for use on a sliding type of hopper door which is operated by arack and pinion drive means. A rotatable locking bar is secured to thesliding door member and has outer edge portions which are semicircular.The semicircular outer edge portions are receivable in a correspondingsemicircular cutout of a stationary locking block. In the lockedposition the semicircular end portion of the locking bar is positionedwithin the semicircular cutout of the locking block to thereby preventsliding movement of the hopper door. A 180 rotation of the locking barremoves the semicircular portion of the lock bar from the locking blockand permits sliding opening of the hopper door.

A handle of the lock bar covers and obstructs an opening in the slidingdoor which is used for attachment of a cable to the door for applicationof high forces from a winch or other trackside device to slide open thedoor when it is jammed. The handle; in covering the opening, preventsattachment of a door opening cable and thereby prevents accidental poweropening of the hopper door unless the lock is disengaged.

The locking bar handle is positioned on top of the sliding hopper doorto allow the lock to remain in a locked or unlocked position by force ofgravity.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved lock fora sliding gate type of hopper door, such lock rotatable 180 to lock andunlock the gate.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a lock for ahopper gate having a handle which obscures an opening in the hopper doorwhich is used to forcibly pull the door open. The handle in blockingthis opening prevents the opening from being utilized when the door islocked.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent fromreference to the following description, appended claims and attacheddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of atypical railway hopper car;

FIG. 2 is a removed greatly enlarged side elevational view of the hopperdischarge portion including the hopper gate of the hopper carillustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the device illustrated in FIG. 1

FIG. 4 is a top view of the device illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial sectional view of the locking bar ofpresent invention shown in two positions;

FIG. 6 is a partial pictorial view of the discharge gate of a hopper andshowing in particular the locking bar of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of the apparatus contained within the dottedcircle indicated by the numeral 7 and contained in the lower right ofFIG. 6..

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION A covered hopper type of railway caris indicated in FIG. 1 and designated by the numeral 10, and includesthe usual hoppers l2 spaced by transversely extending bulkheads l4 andincluding slope sheets 16 used to direct lading to the discharge portion18. The hopper car 10 also has the, usual hatch covers 20 to permitentrance of lading for storage in the hoppers 12 A side sill indicatedby the numeral 22 extends longitudinally of the vehicle between thespaced trucks 24.

A hopper discharge structure generally designated at 26 includes athree-sided flange member 28 having side flange members 28a and an endflange member 28b. The flange members 28a, 28b have a bottom horizontalportion 29 and include a sloped upper portion 29a connected by a shortintermediate portion 29b. As indicated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 an inwardlyand downwardly sloped sheet 30 extends generally from the side sill 22to the discharge structure 26 and is secured to the top slope portion29a of the side flange member 28a.

Ledge member 32 is spaced from the end flange member 28b and forms asealing edge in abutment with the sliding gate 34. Reinforcing and guidemembers 33 are positioned at the comer formed by members 28a and theledge member 32.

The sliding type of discharge gate or door is indicated best in FIG. 6by the numeral 34 and includes a nose portion 36 containing the opening38. The door 34 rests on the bottom ledge 29 of the three-sided flange28, and is guided in its movement by the door clips 39 (see FIG. 2)which are fixedly secured to the intermediate connection 29b.

Attached to the underside of the door 34 are a pair of rack gears 40which extend substantially the entire length of the door. The rack gear40 is engageable with and aligned with a pinion driving gear 42. Thepinion gear 42 is keyed to the shaft 44 which has a capstan 46 at bothends to receive an opening bar for rotation of the shaft. The shaft issupported by bearing blocks 48 which are carried by the bottom ledge 29of the flange 28a. Additional bearing block support members 50 areindicated in FIG. 2 and function to align and support the bearing block48.

Referring now to FIG. 6, it is noticed that the locking bar 54 of thepresent invention is best illustrated. The bar 54 extends transverselyto the door 34 and is held in place by the U-shaped bar supports 56which are fixedly attached tothe door 34. The bar supports 56 arefittedloosely around the locking bar 54 to permit rotation of the bar.As best illustrated in FIG. 7, the end portions of the bar 54 aresemicircular and have what is called bar cutout portions 58 to provide asemicircular end 59 to the bar 54. In the central portion of the bar 54is a handle 60 which is used to rotate the bar 54 and,

as illustrated in FIG. 6, extends from the bar to obstruct the opening38 when the door 34 is locked. Locking block or keeper members 62 arepositioned adjacent the locking bar 54 and fixedly secured to the topslope portion 29a of each side flange member 28a. Each locking block 62includes a semicircular cutout portion 64 which matches the end portion59 of the bar 54 and receives the same.

TI-IE OPERATION Referring now to FIG. 5, it is noticed that when anopening bar is inserted through the opening in the capstan 46 androtated in a clockwise direction the coaction of the rack and piniongear produces a longitudinal movement of the door 34 from left to rightas illustrated in FIG. 5. Also, as illustrated in FIG. 5, it is noticedthat the locking bar 54, in the locked position, has its semicircularshaft end portion 59 positioned within the cutout 64 of the lockingblock 62. Sliding movement of the door is prevented when the lock is inthe position just described. Also, in this locked position and as bestillustrated in FIG. 6, the handle 60 of the locking bar extends over theopening 38 in the nose portion 36 of the door 34 and obstructs theopening in such a manner so as to prevent the insertion of a hook orcable member through the opening in preparation for a forced opening ofthe sliding door should the door become jammed or otherwise refuse toopen by rotation of the shaft 44.

To unlock the door, as best illustrated in FIG. 6, the handle 60 islifted from its obstructing position indicated by the solid lines to thedotted line position. It is understood that after this operation thesemicircular end portions 59 of the bar 54 will be rotated beneath thesemicircular cutout 64 in the locking block 62..

Thus the door 34 is free to slide after this operation. The door lockingbar 54 will remain in the unlocked position by the force of gravitywhich merely allows the handle 60 to rest upon the door 34 and retainsthe door in an unlocked position. Similarly, when the lock is rotatedagain to lock door the handle is placed in position above the opening 38and the handle 60 also in this locked position, rests upon the door thuskeeping the lock in a locked position after rotation.

The foregoing description and drawings merely explain and illustrate theinvention and'the invention is not limited thereto, except insofar asthe appended claims are so limited, as those skilled in the art who havethe disclosure before them will be able to make modifications andvariations therein without departing from the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a railroad hopper car having a door support frame including spacedapart frame members defining a hopper discharge opening, a door mountedon said frame members for sliding horizontal movement on said frame, anda door lock structure for providing locked and unlocked positions of thedoor comprising:

an axially rotatable elongated locking member mounted on said slidingdoor and extending transversely between the frame members,

said locking member having opposed end locking portions,

a keeper mounted on each frame member and having aperture means toreceive a respective end locking portion of said locking member whensaid locking member is rotated from the unlocked to the locked position,each of said end locking portions and a respective keeper being providedwith means to enable said locking member to be released from saidkeepers when said locking member is rotated to the unlocked position,and

door lock operating member mounted on the rotatable locking memberintermediate the end portions of said locking member and beingpositioned adjacent said door when said door is in the locked position.

2. The invention according to claim 1, and

said locking member end portions each having an end projection of lesscross-section than the locking member,

said aperture means of each keeper being contoured to receive theprojection in the locked position and to be free of the projection inthe unlocked position.

3. The invention according to claim 1, and

said door including a forward portion having an aperture intermediatethe ends of the door, said operating member being positioned over thedoor aperture in obstructing relationship with respect thereto in thelocked position of the door.

4. The invention according to claim 1, and

said support frame members each including a side flange member having aside flange extension supporting said door in the open position,

each keeper being mounted on a respective flange extension.

5. The invention according to claim 1, and

said sliding door having an underside carrying a pair of spaced rackgears,

an operating shaft and pinion gear means being operatively suspendedfrom said flange members and engaging with said rack gears foropeningand closing of said sliding door.

1. In a railroad hopper car having a door support frame including spacedapart frame members defining a hopper discharge opening, a door mountedon said frame members for sliding horizontal movement on said frame, anda door lock structure for providing locked and unlocked positions of thedoor comprising: an axially rotatable elongated locking member mountedon said sliding door and extending transversely between the framemembers, said locking member having opposed end locking portions, akeeper mounted on each frame member and having aperture means to receivea respective end locking portion of said locking member when saidlocking member is rotated from the unlocked to the locked position, eachof said end locking portions and a respective keeper being provided withmeans to enable said locking member to be released from said keeperswhen said locking member is rotated to the unlocked position, and a doorlock operating member mounted on the rotatable locking memberintermediate the end portions of said locking member and beingpositioned adjacent said door when said door is in the locked position.2. The invention according to claim 1, and said locking member endportions each having an end projection of less cross-section than thelocking member, said aperture means of each keeper being contoured toreceive the projection in the locked position and to be free of theprojection in the unlocked position.
 3. The invention according to claim1, and said door including a forward portion having an apertureintermediate the ends of the door, said operating member beingpositioned over the door aperture in obstructing relationship withrespect thereto in the locked position of the door.
 4. The Inventionaccording to claim 1, and said support frame members each including aside flange member having a side flange extension supporting said doorin the open position, each keeper being mounted on a respective flangeextension.
 5. The invention according to claim 1, and said sliding doorhaving an underside carrying a pair of spaced rack gears, an operatingshaft and pinion gear means being operatively suspended from said flangemembers and engaging with said rack gears for opening and closing ofsaid sliding door.